Freedom from a prison she never wanted to leave
by Amu Tsukiyomi
Summary: Though the Butterfly never wanted to leave, she finally decided to free herself from this "prison".
1. Chapter 1

I was working on a new oneshot when this idea came to me. I decided to follow the plot bunny down "the rabbit hole" and see where it took me….

I am going to be posting multiple chapters, BUT this is not a chaptered fic. As I was writing, multiple endings came to mind and I chose, for the first chapter, the depressing ending. I loved all of the other endings I came up with, so I'm going to write those up for all of you to read as well.

I am going to name each "chapter" (ie: "Chapter" 1: Sad ending) so you know what the flavor of the ending is.

The other fic I've got in the works is called "No holds Barred". I hope you'll read it when I post it. It's a happy, humorous fic and I try to include as many of the main characters as possible, even if it is just having a character mention them.

Hope you…. Well…I hope you read this fic…

* * *

Her life had come to an impasse. For the past year and a half, she had been going out with the most wonderful man on the face of the earth. She loved him more than anything she had ever loved before. He had told her that he loved her, that she was more than he'd deserved. But recently he had begun to spend less time with her and stopped responding to her messages. It felt like his love for her had begun to fade and he, trying to be a gentleman, was unwilling to just tell her and end their relationship.

The lack of contact was affecting her severely; she was slowly losing her sanity, something that his calming presence had helped her keep. She had told him this and now it seemed he didn't care. Even her personality had suffered, it was nearly non existent; her face and body had become limp and she behaved robotically, like she was only doing things because she was "programmed" to.

Every time she had asked him when she would see him next or suggest something they could do, she would get no response. He wouldn't respond even if he had been replying to messages she sent only a minute before.

He was her sun, the one thing that kept her bright and now her sun was leaving. Darkness began to take over and no matter how many stars there were in the sky, it never got any brighter.

Finally, everything had taken too much. She had nothing and he had everything; her heart, her happiness, his heart and her. There was nothing left in her for herself, no love or life; she had no soul, since he even had that part of her.

Making a decision, she went over to his house, a letter clutched in her hands. Being careful, she made sure none of his neighbors saw her at his house. She looked for a good place to lay the letter, a place where he would see it, but no one else would notice that it was there. After placing the letter, she unlocked the door using the key he had given her and dragged the large bag she had with her inside. Carrying the bag into the living room, she set to work, making sure everything was ready for when he came home in an hour. Once this was finished, she waited for him to arrive.

* * *

Ikuto walked towards his house after a long day at work. He wasn't really paying attention to the short walk from his driveway to his front door, but stepping onto the letter that was neatly laid on his doormat, brought him out of his thoughts. Staring at the letter for a minute, he tried to figure out who could have left the letter. There was no mistaking it was meant fro him; the rather large "IKUTO" of the front had made sure of that.

Picking up the letter, Ikuto opened it and read the three red letters on the note card inside; I love you. Thoroughly confused as to why his girlfriend would leave him such a letter, he opened his door, surprised that it was unlocked.

Every wall and flat surface besides the floor was covered in pictures of Amu; Amu when she was happy, with friends, in school, with family, outside, inside, laughing and asleep. Ikuto walked farther and farther in, looking at all of the photos. Slowly, the photos became different, much more sad. They were of Amu alone, in the dark, crying, surrounded by tatters of clothes and enveloped in chaos. The final picture was of Amu with a gun pointed at her head.

More confused than he had ever been in his life, Ikuto walked into his living room and was greeted with a sight; everything was covered in plastic. The chairs, the tables, the floor and the couch all had a layer of clear plastic over it. The only other major difference in the room was Amu, laying on the couch. Walking over to his girlfriend, Ikuto noticed another letter on the coffee table.

This was on the same paper as the first letter. Except this message was very different than the first;

"The butterfly once flew free, out in the open air, until one day she was caught. She had fallen in love with her captor and had let him catch her. He was her sun and made her grow in his light. But slowly, his light left and she grew cold. Finally, she could bear no longer not having him by her side and so the butterfly freed herself from her captor's grasp, but this time, the butterfly did not fly."

Fear crept into his veins; this was not his Amu. Ikuto rushed to Amu's side. Her hair was beautiful, shiny and soft as it lay across her face, her body was lax, calm, but the one thing that ruined this picture of complete and utter peace was the knife protruding from her chest and the accompanying red stain on her shirt.

She had killed herself.

Amu was dead.

Ikuto had thought everything was fine; she knew he loved her and he knew she loved him, what more did they need? He'd thought she was fine, that he was spending enough time with her, spending enough time talking to her. Until now, Ikuto hadn't realized exactly how little time he was spending with Amu, how little attention he'd really been paying to her.

It was his fault.

It was his fault that she was dead.

He fell to the floor, face buried in his knees. How could he have been so blind? Why didn't he see? He knew why. He had been blinded by happiness, he had been drunk from the knowledge that Amu Hinamori was his and like a fool he'd figured that she would always be there, no matter how bad things got, just like she always had. He had been wrong.

Turning to look again at his, now dead, girlfriend, Ikuto was transfixed by the knife. Slowly standing, he sat down next to her, and gently pulled the knife from her chest. Raising the knife high into the air, he plunged it straight into his heart. Falling next to his dead girlfriend, he placed a chaste kiss on her lips and gave her his last words:

"I hope we meet again, in the next life"

* * *

Well, that turned out exactly as I had planned; DEPRESSING! I feel a strange sense of….. Accomplished failure. Life I achieved my goal, but because it's so depressing, I still failed. It's actually kinda nice….. weird…..

So, like I said, there are going to be alternate endings! So, look forward to: Chapter 2: Happy Ending, Chapter 3: Funny Ending, Chapter 4: WTF Ending and possibly Chapter 5: Reader's Choice Ending (might make a into a contest, most likely a contest.)!

So, Flame, praise or just plain be weird. Tell me what you think! Or not, really, it's your decision.


	2. Chapter 2: Happy Ending

Chapter 2: Happy Ending

So, here it is, the happy ending!

Ikuto came home from a successful day at work; he was a relatively famous author and his publisher was very demanding and quite insensitive to Ikuto's pleas for time off.

It has pained Ikuto that he couldn't see or talk to his strawberry much lately, but after today, he was going to have a lot more free time. After months of begging, something he rarely had to do, his publisher had relented, mostly because Kairi was expecting a child and would also need the time off.

Almost bouncing up the steps into his house, he caught himself, looked around to see if any of his extremely nosy neighbors were watching and did a quick jump of joy. Placing his key into the lock, Ikuto noticed that it was unlocked, which puzzled him; he was certain that he had locked the door this morning.

Walking carefully inside, Ikuto noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing was missing and everything was exactly where he had left it. Completely mystified as to how his door had unlocked itself, Ikuto's ears picked up a faint sound. One that sounded a lot like someone was crying in his living room.

Stealthily walking towards the source of the sound, making as little noise as possible, Ikuto saw pink. 'Oh, it's Amu. That explains the unlocked door, but why is she crying?'

Finally having a full view of his girlfriend, he saw exactly why she was crying. In her hands Amu held a knife, one of those fancy Scottish knives, and it was pointed at her chest.

Not wanting her to accidentally stab herself by startling her, Ikuto crept up behind her and quickly snatched the knife from her hands. Placing the knife on top of the bookcase, a place that Amu could never reach, he turned back to see his strawberry looking thoroughly shocked.

"I-Ikuto? Is…..is that really you? It can't be, I have to be hallucinating…"

Unhappy that his girlfriend would ever assume he was a hallucination, Ikuto decided to use that to his advantage and get some answers from her.

"Amu, why did you have that knife? You know I'd never want you to kill yourself."

Burying her head in her hands, Amu began to cry once more.

"You're just a hallucination! Why do you care?"

Her words hurt, deeply, but Ikuto looked past it because she was distressed.

"I care because I am based off of your memories of the real Ikuto and you know as well as I that he would care about something like this."

"I…..I….cant live with out him. He obviously doesn't love me any more…. So if he doesn't love me….. I can't keep on living…."

Appalled at what his recent schedule had caused, Ikuto swore revenge on Kairi… most likely taking form in something happening to his precious samurai swords and them disappearing for a while.

"What about how he told you that you were more than he had ever expected to have? How he would always love you no matter what? Do those promises mean nothing to you? You know he meant and still means them, yes?"

Looking up from her hands, his strawberry looked at him in hope. It sickened him to see her like this, broken and near a severe breakdown. Unable to keep his distance any longer, Ikuto knelt in front of Amu.

"You mean that?"

"I meant every word of it, and I always will."

Ikuto leaned in and gave her a sweet, reassuring kiss. Unsurprisingly, Amu did not react.

"Ikuto?"

"Yes, Amu?"

Amu said nothing in reply, but instead flung herself at Ikuto, tackling him to the ground. They lay there for long time, just basking in each other's presence.

"I missed you so much! I thought you didn't love me any more…."

"I know and I'm sorry. I never meant for my job to keep me away for so long….."

Ikuto held his girlfriend close, knowing just how lucky he was to have arrived home when he had. If he'd been even a minute later, he might have lost Amu.

"Don't ever think that again, no matter how little I'm able to talk to you."

Amu raised her head, a beatific smile on her face. He returned her smile, finally feeling completely happy for the first time in months.

"To make it up to you, stay here for the week? I don't have to work so we can go anywhere and do anything you want."

Amu kissed him and Ikuto knew her answer; yes.


End file.
